Everett to Consider Huge Menu of Services to Cut and Fees to Raise

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Editor’s Update Thu April 3rd, 10am: The city has now posted the power point outlining all of the options currently under consideration as well as the full remarks providing more detail on specific suggestions.

Review, think about, comment, decide. Those are the four basic tasks ahead for Everett city employees, business owners, residents and Everett City Council members after a presentation was made by Everett’s Structural Deficit Advisory Team to the Everett City Council. Everett is facing a gap of $13 million dollars between forecast revenues and forecast expenses in 2015 rising to $21 million dollars by 2018. In order to close that gap Mayor Ray Stephanson told the Everett City Council that the city has to change the way it does business. A whole laundry list of options was presented for both raising revenues and cutting expenses. Some of the high level items mentioned were…

• Replace some jobs done by Everett police officers with civilians
• Re-evaluate the work shifts of firefighters
• Double the adult bus fare on Everett Transit from $1.00 to $2.00
• Create a Metro Parks Department that would be funded by voters as opposed to the general fund
• Dissolve the Everett library and join the Sno-Isle library system
• Sell a portion of the Walter Hall Golf Course
• Send long term prisoners to serve jail time outside of the Puget Sound area
• Close the Forest Park Swim Center
• Increase utility taxes from 4.5% to 6.0% and add that tax to cable TV and garbage collection
• Shut down the petting farm
• Increase the B&O tax on all sectors except manufacturing
• Eliminate lifeguards at Silver Lake beach
• Bring back pay parking to downtown Everett
• Charge a $20.00 car tab fee to pay for road maintenance

There are many more options including laying off up to 50 city employees. These are just very preliminary suggestions and the city of Everett will be holding several meetings with employees and the public over the next 2 months with concrete plans expected to come out of those meetings in late May.

The city has also launched a website where details of the plans will be available for anyone to see.

Here’s a list of meetings to be held between now and mid-May that will give anyone interested a chance to provide their input…

April 7-9, 2014: Employee meetings
April 9, 2014: Proposed council workshop – expense reduction options
April 16, 2014: Proposed council workshop – revenue adjustment options
April 30, 2014: Proposed council workshop – study options
May 8, 2014: Community meeting – 5:30-8 p.m. Evergreen Middle School
May 13, 2014: Community meeting – 5:30-8 p.m. Wilderness Auditorium, Everett Community College